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Riding Rockets

Donna greets me after landing at Edwards AFB from my first mission, September 5, 1984. Mission Commander Hank Hartsfield and his wife, Fran, are in the background.

Located a few blocks from the Johnson Space Center main gate, the decrepit Outpost Tavern is a popular astronaut hangout.

Challenger’s forward fuselage(arrow) was part of the breakup debris, January 28, 1986. The fact that some cockpit switches were found in the wreckage in emergency positions proves that the crew was alive and functioning for at least some period after vehicle destruction. But escape was impossible. The space shuttle had no bailout system.

The STS-27 Swine Flight crew after arriving at the Kennedy Space Center for our December 2–6, 1988, mission.From left to right: Mission Specialist Jerry Ross and Pilot Guy Gardner. I’m standing in the middle. To my immediate left is Mission Specialist Bill Shepherd. Robert “Hoot” Gibson, the commander, is at the microphone.

Viewing the severe heat-shield damage sustained during our STS-27 launch. The tip of the right side SRB broke off during ascent and damaged seven hundred belly heat tiles, by far the worst shuttle heat-shield damage sustained prior to theColumbia tragedy. I’m leaning around Pilot Guy Gardner.

Christie Brinkley is all smiles while standing next to me at a Super Bowl XXIII halftime photo-op, January 22, 1989. Bill Shepherd is at my right. Guy Gardner stands on Christie’s left side. No doubt it was meeting me that doomed her marriage to Billy Joel…or so I tell everybody.

My family at the astronaut beach house in late February 1990, prior to my last mission, STS-36. Donna and I stand in the middle. My mom and our youngest daughter, Laura, stand at my right. Our twins, Patrick and Amy, stand at Donna’s left. My dad passed away in 1988.

On the drive back from an STS-36 launch scrub, I hold my pressure-suit neck ring open for a flow of cooling air to escape. I forced the smile. Mission scrubs were always a crushing disappointment…and I had six of them.

The STS-36 (February 28–March 4, 1990) in-space crew photo.From left to right: Commander John “J.O.” Creighton and Mission Specialist Dave Hilmers. I’m floating in the middle. Next are Mission Specialist Pierre “Pepe” Thuot and Pilot John Casper.

Donna and I meet the Bushes in the Oval Office, May 1990. While leading us on a tour of the White House, Mrs. Bush displayed a hilarious one-of-the-guys sense of humor.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

1. Bowels and Brains

2. Adventure

3. Polio

4. Sputnik

5. Selection

6. The Space Shuttle

7. Arrested Development

8. Welcome

9. Babes and Booze

10. Temples of History